To be frank, after getting off air from today’s BradCast, I’m still almost too furious and/or exhausted to write about it. Tune in to find out why. [Audio link to show is posted below.]
But, in short, among the stories we covered…
- Two members of Congress (one D, one R) test positive for coronavirus as leadership defies calls to allow for remote voting for members;
- Despite weeks of repeated BS claims to the contrary by Trump and his White House, coronavirus testing (or lack thereof) is causing chaos across the U.S., with those who need tests still, obscenely, unable to get one;
- Secretly recorded audio reveals that GOP Senator Richard Burr, speaking to wealthy political funders, knew well about the likely catastrophic dangers of the coming pandemic long before he (or Trump or anyone in the Administration) was willing to warn as much to the public, much less take what would have been live-saving action weeks ago. (But, as Trump said during a WH presser yesterday in response to why celebrities, and apparently members of Congress, seem to have no trouble getting tested quickly: “Perhaps that’s the story of life. I’ve heard that happens on occasion.”);
- There is a ray of hope from China, where the city of Wuhan, where the virus was first identified, reported zero new homegrown infections on Wednesday and only eight additional deaths there. Those are remarkably encouraging numbers, but come at a very steep price of mandatory isolation and a central government able to act quickly to shore up its medical system to rise appropriately to meet the moment;
- The good news from China is offset by the bad news from Italy, where 475 people died in a single day on Wednesday. The death toll there has now officially surpassed China’s, even though the Asian nation has 1.4 billion citizens compared to Italy’s 60 million. The numbers in the U.S. look more and more like Italy’s every day, with the response from our own federal government being far worse;
- The pandemic has, virtually overnight, begun to show up in the U.S. economy with an enormous spike in unemployment claims in states across the nation and a federal government so gutted through huge, reckless, unending tax cuts for the wealthy and interest rate cuts during boom times that there are very few economic tools left in the federal arsenal to mitigate the cataclysmic shock to the economy that is almost certainly now in place;
- So, of course, yet again, every Republican in government who pretends to not be a socialist — who couldn’t wait for Sanders to win the Democratic nomination so they could pretend as much even louder — is now, once again, relying on the federal government for enormous bailouts. (Funny how this happens every time Republicans are allowed to take control of the federal government, no?) Socialist GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is now leading his party in calling for teeny-tiny checks to be sent to individual Americans and for more huge tax cuts — as if there is anything left to cut — for giant corporations. Yes, those would be same huge corporations which already received a trillion dollar tax cut from Trump and the same GOP just about a year ago, and the same ones who give huge money to Republicans year after year to call those seeking to end these economic nightmares “socialists” for wanting to do so. Nice work if you can get it. But “perhaps that’s the story of life. I’ve heard that happens on occasion.”;
- And with all of that cheery news — and a few choice Brad Rants to go with it all — we close with Desi Doyen and our latest Green News Report, as she finds amidst more disasters than we have the heart to describe here, at least one or two silver linings inside of it all…
The BradCast
with Brad Friedman
3/19/2020
Trump/GOP Disaster of Monumental Proportions: ‘BradCast’ 3/19/2020 | Coronavirus infects Congress; Sen. Burr knew; National chaos over lack of testing for non-celebrities; Unemployment claims skyrocket; Socialist Repubs propose trillion dollar bailout (that won't be nearly enough)... · · · · · Trump/GOP Disaster of Monumental Proportions: ‘BradCast’ 3/19/2020 | Coronavirus infects Congress; Sen. Burr knew; National chaos over lack of testing for non-celebrities; Unemployment claims skyrocket; Socialist Repubs propose trillion dollar bailout (that won't be nearly enough)...
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This evening, Thursday,March 19,2020, it has come out that Richard Burr sold a big batch of stock, just before the bottom dropped out of the market, making him the third Republican who has reported selling a big batch of stock , based on information he received in confidential meetings about the severity of the covid 19 crisis.